


Liked it, put a ring on it

by Pennyplainknits



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: M/M, Not Beta Read, Rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 15:45:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17625209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pennyplainknits/pseuds/Pennyplainknits
Summary: David proposes.





	Liked it, put a ring on it

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to that set of silver rings and Dan Levy's giant hands

Alexis has gotten really into bullet journalling. The desk in her tiny ‘home office’ is covered in rolls of washi tape and sheets of stickers.

“Why are your hands green?” David asks

“Uh, it’s viridian,” Alexis says. “Fountain pen ink. I’m still working out the best way to fill the pens but I feel like I really _connect_ with my words.”

David picks up the journal and flicks through it. ‘Life Plan’ catches his eye.

“Hey give that back,” Alexis says, but David’s too quick, and he hops up onto what is now the guest bed, holding the book out of reach.

“Run the Elmdale 15k for Puppy on Wheels charity,” he reads “Expand Alexis Rose Consulting into digital identity management, begin violin lessons...children. Wait. CHILDREN?” he repeats. He slides down onto the bed. “Alexis!”

She sits next to him and snatches the journal out of his hands “Veterinarian is a stable profession,” she says, “And look at the date, David. It’s not like I’m planning to get Ted to knock me up next week.”

David looks. The little stroller sticker is some years in the future, after “Get Dad to admit he cried at the end of Harry Potter” and “create the perfect mocktail flight for baby shower”.

“Wow,” David says. “You’re really thinking kids?”

“Don’t tell me that Ted wouldn’t be an amazing Dad. You’ve see him with bunnies. And anyway, don’t you want a little niece or nephew to impart your wisdom to?”

“Uh I will be imparting a sense of _style_ and helping them find their signature look,” David corrects her. “Patrick will be imparting the wisdom, we all know this. That man can fill out a financial aid form in his sleep.”

“Good,” Alexis says “because I’m not sure how far that college fund will stretch. Now get out of here. I’ve got vision lists to create.”

“The green fingerprints will really add to them.” David says. Alexis looks at the smudges all over her pristine journal and screams.

XXX

“Babe,” Patrick calls from the bedroom “You know our opening hours aren’t a suggestion, right? We need to maintain the trust of our customer base.”

“I’m having a _crisis_ ,” David says. He looks in the mirror and tries to get his hair to stick up again. It holds the volume for a second and then collapses down. “A crisis because of this PIECE OF SHIT pomade.” He shakes the tube. “You had one job. One! Job!”

“Why are we berating grooming products?” Patrick asks. He has his button-down on, but unbuttoned, open over his bare chest. It’s one of David’s favourite looks for him.

“I ran out of my normal product,” David says, peering at his reflection, “and the replacement hasn’t shipped yet so I’m stuck using this sub-standard excuse for a pomade. I refuse to go out like this.” He pokes at his hair again.

“Did you check under the sink?” Patrick asks, but before David can respond he’s leaning down and pulling out a tube of David’s normal pomade.

“You have to special order this, when did you buy it?” David asks.

“When you started sleeping over regularly,” Patrick says.

“Oh,” Their eyes catch in the mirror, and they smile at each other as David fixes his hair, Patrick’s chin propped on his shoulder.

“Hey,” Patrick says, kissing his neck, “do you know you have grey hairs over your temple?”

“Uh, one, they are _silver_ and two, don’t remind me,” David says.

“You’re still good,” Patrick kisses him again.

“Will you still love me when I’m no longer a raven-haired beauty?” David asks.

“You’ll look very distinguished,” Patrick says, “Just look at your dad. At least I know you’ll keep your hair.”

David twists round and holds the open edges of Patrick’s shirt “Don’t talk about my dad when you’re hitting on me.”

“Who’s hitting on you?” Patrick says, putting his hands over David’s and moving them to button his shirt. “Come on, we’ll be late.” He steps back and goes back into the bedroom for his shoes.

“Fine,” David says. “We can talk about how handsome I am later.”

“I believe I said distinguished.” Patrick says.

“I know what I heard,” David says, kissing the top of his head. 

XXX

“So the old Curl Up and Dye in Elmdale’s closing,” Twyla says. She snaps the lids onto David’s latte and Patrick’s tea.

“The....Curl Up and Dye?” David says.

“The salon?” Twyla explains. “Mr Conway is retiring. My friend Tulip’s his great niece. She’s trying to help him sell the place and I thought it would good for your store.” She puts two scones into a paper bag.

“My store is here,” David explains, confused.

“Oh no, I meant another store. Two stores. An expansion.” She hands David his change.

“I don’t think that Rose Apothecary is ready for that yet,” David says.

“Ready for what?” Patrick says from behind him, sliding one arm round his waist.

“Franchise expansion,” David says. “Hi. I thought you were opening up the store?”

“Well I was, but then someone else has the key.” Patrick’s fingers work their way into his pocket and come back out with the key.

“I was distracted this morning.” David says, snuggling into him.

“Oh, so now it’s my fault,” Patrick grins at him and picks up the scones. “So does this mean you don’t want an empire like Rose Video?”

David considers it as he watches his boyfriend hold to door open for the senior centre’s cribbage league.

“While ruling an empire by your side sounds appealing, I do like having total creative control over our little store,” he says eventually.

“Unsurprising,” Patrick laughs. He unlocks the store and David moves past him to punch in the alarm code.

“It’s our decision, anyway,” David says, counting out the float. “Not just mine. We’re partners.”

“We can put a pin in our five year plan to discuss it later,” Patrick says.

“We have a five year plan?” David asks.

“It’s like you don’t know me at all,” Patrick says, leaning over the counter to kiss him.

XXX 

Patrick is refolding the gansey sweaters and thinking aloud about how they should see if Mrs Starmore could branch out into something in linen for the warmer months when David finally puts it together. Every time he thinks about the future, Patrick’s there. Advising Alexis’s college-aged kids. Making decades of five-year plans for their business. Seeing David’s hair turn silver like Johnny’s, then white like his grandfather Leonard’s. He can’t remember the last time he thought of the two of them with an end date.

David knew he was in love, like Mariah Carey love.But this is Celine Dion ballads love. Johnny and Moira love, forty years and counting love, something so strong it can survive the total destruction of one way of life and rebuilding it into something new.

David sits down heavily on the counter, scattering lip balms. Patrick looks up at the noise.

“You ok there, graceful?” He asks, eyes crinkling.

David nods. The world doesn’t look any different after this huge revelation. It looks like it always does when he looks at Patrick. He knows what he has to do. It doesn’t feel scary at all.

“I have something to say,” he manages. His tongue feels big in his mouth, and he takes a sip of Patrick’s pineapple and orange juice.

“Is it about that sourdough delivery service again because I’m not sure that has legs,” Patrick says. He folds the last gansey and comes over, standing between David’s legs. “And stop stealing my juice.” He kisses David as he take the bottle out of his hand.

“Let’s get married,” David says. Patrick jerks so hard the juice splashes out of the bottle.

“What?” He says slowly.

“Will you marry me?” David says, it’s easier to say the second time, and feels just as right. Patrick’s smiling. David slides his hands round his shoulders to pull him, close, their lips are just about to touch when Patrick says

“Wait.”

David freezes, terrified for a second, but the dimples are already coming in on Patrick’s face.

“In my experience a ring is generally involved.” Patrick says

“Oh, in your experience.” David says, tipping his head forward onto Patrick’s chest as the laugh bubbles up.

“Only one of us has proposed before, and I gotta tell you David, it shows.”

“And yet I still want to spend the rest of my life with you.” David says into the lawn of Patrick’s shirt.

“Well, I’m a catch, You’re very lucky.”

“You haven’t actually said yes yet,” David points out.

“Well I’m still not seeing a ring,” Patrick says.

“You want me to spend three months salary?” David asks, pretending to be shocked. “Think of the size of the espresso machine we could buy with that.”

“Shhhh” Patrick laughs, “You’ll give Bertha abandonment issues.”

David thumbs the silver ring sitting on the top joint of his index finger, then slips it off.

“Let me get down,” he says.

“David,” Patrick begins.

“No, no, you mocked my proposing abilities and now I’m doing it properly.” David slides down from the counter and kneels on the floor. He holds up the ring.

“Third time’s the charm,” he says.

“Yes,” Patrick says before he can get the words out. “Yes of course I will. I love you, get off the floor.” He hauls him to his feet, and David kisses his fiancé for the first time.

The ring, it turns out, only fits on Patrick’s thumb.

“Your hands are ust that much bigger,” Patrick says, spinning the ring round. His voice is low the way it gets when he really, really likes something.

“I’ll get you another one,” David says, “or we can resize it.” The silver covers Patrick’s thumb from base to knuckle. David had seen the whole set in a gallery and loved them at once, loved how they were both weapon and armour. Like the sweaters with spiked shoulders, the heavily studded jackets, the steel-chained boots. Clothes that were wild and thorny and sharp to protect the softest parts of him. Now Patrick’s wearing part of his armour, but he doesn’t feel exposed.

“No, I love it,” Patrick cups his cheek, the silver ring warm on David’s jaw. “I don’t want anything else.”

“It’s not quite your style babe,” David says.

“You’re my style,” Patrick says, and tugs David in for a kiss far more filthy than his little button face would have you believe. “Want to flip the sign to closed for the rest of the day?”

XXX

Of course, just because Patrick likes the ring doesn’t mean David’s family does.

“You’ll get another one, of course,” Moira says that night at the impromptu engagement dinner. Twyla has hung silver streamers above their table and Stevie scattered a handful of ‘confetti’ over them.

(“This is just the scraps from the hole punch at the front desk” David complained, brushing them out of his hair.

“Budget cuts,” Stevie replied.)

“Oh! Or you could upgrade it to platinum at the wedding, like I did,” Alexis suggests.

“Wait, you were married?” Ted asks.

“Babe, it wasn’t for real,” Alexis flaps her hand at him. “It was just so I could get into the church so I could get into the _cellar_ so I could get to the hidden emergency radio so I could contact the embassy. I didn’t sign anything so it’s totally not legal. Anyway, like I said. You can upgrade. Maybe add a tasteful engraving?”

Patrick hooks his foot round David’s ankle and squeezes. There’s a tiny crinkle at the corner of his mouth like he always gets when he’s about to troll someone.

“I was thinking about a new one,” he says. Moira breathes a sigh of relief. “We were looking at silicone ones online. What with all the packing and unpacking I do at the store I wanted something that wouldn’t catch on anything.”

“Sili-CONE?” Moira says, voice rising. “Is that-”

“They make baking pans from it,” Ted says, looking at them both over the top of Alexis’s head.

“And spatulas.” Stevie adds.

“SPATULAS?” Moira repeats.

“Moira, let the boys decide on their own rings.” Johnny says.

“No! Absolutely not!” Moira puts her purse down on the table and starts to rummage through it. Lipsticks and wig pins go flying. “I’m sure it’s still in here, AH!” she pulls a ring out from one of the inside pockets. David vaguely recognises the princess-cut emerald.

“Well where did you find that? I haven’t seen it in years.” Johnny asks.

“In the pocket of this bag,” Moira says. “I must have put it there for safekeeping at that Twilight Years Tendonitis benefit in Key West, it kept snagging at my stockings.

Patrick’s shoulders are shaking with the effort of not laughing and David has never loved him more.

“Here, dear boy,” Moira tries to fold Patrick’s fingers around the ring. “I insist.”

“Moira, I,” Patrick says.

“INSIST.” Moira says. “I simply cannot have a future son-in-law of mine wearing an engagement ring without a caret to its name.”

“Moira. Mrs Rose,” Patrick unclasps his hand and gives the ring to Johnny. “You’re very kind, but I have the only ring I want. Do you know why? Because David gave it to me. That’s all I need.”

David has to kiss him for that. A scatter of applause breaks out, because they are apparently the Cafe Tropical floor show this evening. When David opens his eyes his whole family and Ted are looking at him with identical soft expressions.

“Oh Johnny, they remind me of us,” Moira sniffs and dabs at her eyes. “Look at them. Two young lovers off on their next adventure.”

Alexis snorts at ‘young’ and David kicks her.

“Well,” Patrick says, standing up “Thank you Roses, but I’m taking my fiancé home now.”

“Be good!” Alexis shouts after them as the door closes behind them.

David takes hold of Patrick’s hand, linking their fingers. His rings look unbalanced now, the top of his index finger oddly bare, but he’ll get used to it. As long as Patrick’s with him, he’ll still have the full set.

“I’m really happy,” He says, turning Patrick towards him. “You make me so happy.” Patrick winds his arms round him and they kiss until a loud thumping noise startles them apart. Stevie is banging on the cafe window and when they both turn to look at her she and Alexis both make heart hands.

“You realise you’re also stuck with them for life?” David says. “Unless you want to elope and change identities.”

“We’re finally building our customer base,” Patrick says. “Let’s stay here for now.”

“For as long as you like.” David promises.

“Forever sounds good to me, as long as I’m with you,” Patrick says, and it’s the sweetest sound in the world.


End file.
